Chapter 3

Lord Yu was ecstatic that I captured Orunmila and frankly, a bit perplexed that I had managed to rout his forces so completely and so swiftly. Almost as soon as Orunmila had been taken to a holding cell to await the negotiations with Olokun, Lord Yu was grilling me about what I did and how I did it. I held nothing back from him, I honestly had no reason to do so, as Yu was not only more reasonable than the majority of Go'auld in the Galaxy but also my Overlord and Sponsor. As I was now, there was no getting ahead to build a powerbase of my own without Lord Yu's patronage and approval.

This included the tactics I'd used, as well as the modifications I'd made to the Xiaotian Quan and its systems, along with the technical specifications of the Armor I had put together that allowed me to be capable of handling an Entire Platoon of Jaffa on my own. Lord Yu was impressed by my engineering capabilities and my naval tactics. My decision to board the enemy flagship personally and fight on the front lines was something he was less impressed by.

"That was an unnecessary risk, fighting like some common Jaffa is not something becoming of a Goa'uld, especially not one that is to be the Grand Chancellor of Heaven." Admonished Lord Yu.

"I survived easily, and had I not gone along with the boarding party, it would have been far more difficult to persuade Orunmila to surrender. I had to be present for that to work, My Lord." I pointed out.

"That is another thing. Swearing oaths by the Fires of Nilor is not a thing to be undertaken lightly. Some might say that doing so for an objective such as this cheapens such a sacred oath." Intoned Lord Yu.

"With respect, My Lord. I assumed you intended to utilize Orunmila as a bargaining chip in the upcoming negotiations with Olokun. Anticipating your desire to get the most out of such a negotiation, I felt it wise to do whatever I could to ensure your bargaining chip was brought before you whole and intact. An undamaged Orunmila surely increases the value of such a bargaining chip in the eyes of his overlord and thus will make Olukun more willing to concede on stipulations to see him returned." I offered.

"Yes, it worked out well in the end this time and your eye toward anticipating my needs for the upcoming negotiations does you credit, but have a care that you do not continue to utilize such strategies often. You may find yourself bound to agreements that run counter to your interest, and mine, should you be too free with such a thing." Warned Lord Yu.

"As always, My Lord, your advice is sound and most welcome." I conceded.

"Bah, you are young. You will learn in time. If you should not, then you will be replaced as my Grand Chancellor and subjected to penalties for your foolishness. I can tolerate youthful enthusiasm. I cannot tolerate incompetence." Waved off, Lord Yu.

I bowed before my overlord and he turned his back on me, a clear dismissal if ever there was one, but also a show of some measure of trust. Of course, I was not foolish enough to think that Lord Yu would be unguarded even now, with his back turned. Any number of sensors and defenses would be keeping a close watch over him here in the Pel'tac of his Flagship. Many other Goa'uld would not be as insightful as I am in this situation. My mind wandered toward Zipacna, an Underlord of Apophis who thought himself more clever than he actually was. Were he here, he might attempt to strike Lord Yu's back and he would be annihilated in the attempt by the multiple hidden plasma casters around Lord Yu's Pel'tac.

Instead, I withdrew back to the Xiaotian Quan to further my tinkering and see to the welfare of my Jaffa. I was halfway through an upgrade of the focusing array of the Zat'nic'tel which should increase the range of the pistol-like weapon when I received a communication from Lord Yu's flagship stating a few things. First, I was being given control of my Mother's Province of Taiji as promised, for the successful completion of my mission. Second, I was being gifted the captured Ha'tak Opele for going above and beyond in the completion of said mission. Next, Lord Yu granted me the use of an Ensi-class Deployable Shipyard to fix the Opele, make modifications to various ships, and build smaller ships of my own for my contributions to the technical capability of his forces.

That was huge, my genetic memory told me that the Ensi-class Deployable Shipyard was one of the wonders that had been invented during the High First Goa'uld Dynasty, along with Ptah's invention of the Ha'tak and various fighter craft, Khnum's invention of the Al'kesh and Ma'tok Staff Weapon, Thoth's invention of the Kara Kesh and Zat'nic'tel, the invention of the Jaffa by Pelops, and the invention of the Tiānkōng Huán ring transporter and the Tiān Chuán cargo skiff by Zhurong. The Ensi-class deployable shipyard had been invented by Sirsir, a minor Goa'uld in service to Enlil, who ruled large swathes of territory in what is now territory belonging to Ba'al. Sirsir became known as the Boat God because of this innovation, a small shipyard that could travel through Hyperspace with a fleet and set up anywhere.

Of course, there were limits to the capability of the Ensi-class Deployable Shipyard. For instance, if you wanted to use it to create ships, it couldn't really create ships with a superstructure as large as a Ha'tak in a single go. It would have to create the central Pryimid and the Superstructure separately and then they would need to be fitted together largely by work crews with plasma torches rather than the crew of the Shipyard itself. Such Ha'tak construction meant that should the Ha'tak's shields be breached, they would have a built-in structural weakness for enemy ships to target. It was more feasible to create ships that were the size of the Al'kesh Gunship or slightly larger.

The Ensi-class could modify existing Ha'taks more easily than it could build new ones, however. That was just as well because Lord Yu was tasking me with upgrading a certain number of his Ha'taks with any new technology I developed when I developed it. That number fluctuated seemingly upon Lord Yu's wants and desires at any one time. I figured it would be doable, however. After all, Taiji possessed a stationary Al'kesh shipyard already, so accommodating Lord Yu's Hataks in the Ensi-class Shipyard wouldn't be too problematic.

The last thing I was being told by Lord Yu was that we would head to the neutral world of Yamato, the Throne World of Amaterasu, who had offered to host the Negotiations between Olokun and Lord Yu. We would be allowed two Ha'taks as the victorious party while Olokun would only be allowed one as the loser. For her part, as the Host, Amaterasu would be allowed to keep four Ha'taks stationed in orbit at all times in order to keep the peace. Lord Yu was taking his flagship, the Ha'tak Yùzuò, and I was to take the Xiaotian Quan and follow him there. We will initiate the Hyperspace Jump no less than three days from now, once Repairs and Modifications have been completed to the Xiaotian Quan and Yuzuo. Lord Yu wanted both ships to be modified with my modifications to the systems and repaired from any battle damage just in case of treachery.

Fortunately, the Xiaotian Quan didn't have any battle damage and while the healing devices did their work on my wounded Jaffa, which should get them back up to full strength in the allotted time period, I was able to continue my work modifying the Zat'nic'tel. My genetic memory combined with my Oma Desala-given Enhanced Mental Abilities gave me an in-depth insight into how this all worked.

Zat'nic'tels were incredibly powerful weapons that made no sense if you thought about it for a second. How was a gun that could stun on one shot, kill on the second, and disintegrate on the third even something that was possible? The first two seemed wholly incongruous with the last one. It turned out that it was a matter of electrical manipulation. The Zat'nic'tel, at its core, was just a really versatile taser. Thoth had cribbed the basic design from the Ancients, who utilized it as a police weapon that could stun, kill, and even disable electronic devices. Thoth, in the process of experimenting with the ancient design, had tripped ass-backward into somehow making a variant that could, with sufficient shots, overload the electrical bonds binding molecules together, effectively causing matter to disintegrate.

Unfortunately, in doing so, he not only sacrificed the EMP Capability of the weapon but also inadvertently cannibalized the potential to disintegrate heavier forms of matter. The Zat just didn't carry enough juice under the hood to disintegrate anything more hefty than a Jaffa and his personal equipment. It was a safety precaution built into the initial Ancient Weapon in the event of just this sort of jailbreaking. That's why you could fire this thing all day in a cargo bay and not have it disintegrate the bulkhead separating you from the vacuum of space. Of course, the EMP Cannibalization was accidental because even smart Goa'uld are still Goa'uld.

All this I figured out in a few hours, along with a way to re-enable the EMP functionality, though trying to deactivate the anti-jailbreaking functionality was beyond my current capabilities even with my enhanced intellect. Still, that, plus the range enhancement, functionally made this Zat'nic'tel modification a completely different weapon. I christened this model of Zat'nic'tel, the Diàn Jiàn Version.

I had just enough time to alter my personal Zat'nic'tel and test the modifications on some spare electronics that I'd had brought out of storage along with a few rats brought up from Longinus before we had to depart. Nothing seemed to malfunction and a post-test analysis once we were in the Hyperspace Corridor en route to Yamato let me know that while the modifications resulted in an uptick of maintenance, Lord Yu's Jaffa were expected to perform simple maintenance of their equipment regularly enough to cover. Were I ever to be caught in a situation where maintenance was in short supply it could be a problem, but until my Jaffa would need to fight a guerilla war in the jungle or something, we should be all right.

I even walked Chen and the brightest of my Jaffa through the modifications and the maintenance procedures and soon the Xiaotian Quan's Armory was stocked with enough Zat'nic'tels that had been modified into the Diàn Jiàn Version to equip a full company of my Jaffa. Given how I had been given a battalion of my own to command even after the Third Battle of Longinus, I was reserving their use for the company that Chen thought were the best marksmen. While I was down on Yamato with Lord Yu for the negotiations, his second prime, a Burly Jaffa named Ping would be putting the Jaffa on the ship through training drills to find out which company were the best shots and would be the first to receive Diàn Jiàn Version Zat'nic'tels.

At the same time, I forwarded the schematics for the modifications and the maintenance procedures to Lord Yu on the Yùzuò. I received another congratulatory note in reply along with an order to hold off on any more inventing until after we had concluded the negotiations with Olokun. Lord Yu wished for the Diàn Jiàn Version Zat'nic'tels to be a surprise should Olokun try any treachery or for Amaterasu should she attempt to wipe both him and Olokun out during the negotiations to eliminate two rivals. He would be modifying some of the Zat'nic'tels into Diàn Jiàn Versions for himself, his First Prime, Wei Han, and several hand-picked Jaffa while he had the time in hyperspace.

Eventually, however, we appeared over the world of Yamato. It was a world of grassy plains and forested mountains. Culturally, the world was caught somewhere in the Asuka Period. This coincided with the period when the last of the brief period of intermittent Goa'uld Slave Raids on Earth was recorded during the first third of the Third Goa'uld Dynasty, back when the Goa'uld still had the location of Earth, before Ra's conflict with the Asgard, along with Anubis' assault had wiped out that knowledge along with a large portion of Goa'uld Capability. Ra had eventually won out, banishing Anubis and ruling openly after the last puppet descendant of the Second Goa'uld Dynasty, Sharuma, had been slain by Anubis, in an attempt to prove his superiority over Ra by ending the farce the bloodline of Tiamat had become.

Regardless what this effectively meant was that everything was similar enough to how it was in Lord Yu's Domain for the differences to be jarring rather than interesting. Chinese Influence in Japan during the Asuka period was prevalent enough that its echoes carried over to the Goa'uld versions of Lord Yu's and Amaterasu's Domain. I would have found it fascinating in my old life, but now that I had the genetic memory of generations of Lord Yu's family on tap that popped up every time I needed a technical schematic, it was irritating more than fascinating.

"Do not let the cultural differences blind you to our mission here. We are here to gain a lasting settlement with Olokun. Also, do not let yourself be distracted from the very real dangers that might be lying in wait. Amaterasu may simply want the prestige that brokering a treaty between two enemies would give, or she may be attempting to eliminate two rivals for power. Stay on your guard." Commanded Lord Yu as he, Wei Han, Chen, four other Jaffa, and I waited in the area we had been transported down to.

In the room were a number of servants, most were pretty young girls in elaborately styled silk court robes, not quite Hanfu, but not quite Kimono either. Most were playing the biwa or waiting near side tables where silvered plates of food and ceramic carafes of drink lay waiting near jewel-encrusted platters to be served. It was currently in the middle of the Hot season on Yamato so most of the drinks on offer were chilled.

"I will endeavor not to. Chen, make sure your men take heed of our Lord's August Advice. Be prepared for trouble should it be brought to us." I instructed.

"Of course, My Lord. I would be a fool not to heed the words of the Exalted Jade Emperor." Nodded Chen.

"You take to command well. Your mother never did. She was always more of a schemer. It served her poorly in the end." Mused Lord Yu.

"My mother sought to aggrandize herself at your expense. She paid for it with her life. I am not her." I replied.

"Good. See to it that you remember her mistake and strive not to repeat it." Intoned Lord Yu.

As our conversation lapsed into silence, a serving girl in a courtly robe made her way over with a porcelain carafe and two porcelain cups, along with a pair of silver bowls of what looked like sauteed lotus root slices on a jewel-encrusted plate. Bowing low before Lord Yu and I, she offered the platter to us with both hands.

"Refreshments my lords?" Questioned the Woman.

"Wei Han. Do your duty." Ordered Lord Yu.

Wei Han saluted and brought a handheld scanning device, scanning the refreshments three times to ensure that they were not laced with something that might harm Lord Yu or myself. After the third scan turned up Green, however, I took one of the cups of drink. It was Winter Melon Juice, or something close to it.

"Thank You. Quite refreshing." I nodded at the Servant.

"I will wait." Remarked Lord Yu, imperiously.

"You really should try the Juice. This world is unique in many ways, not the least is how much the heat can sap the strength from your bones." Came a female voice from the other end of the room.

I turned to see a dark-haired woman in an odd floral robe that was corseted with a black leather corset. Her eyes glowed with the inner light of a Symbiote along with a hint of mischief as well. Amaterasu, System Lord and our host for the negotiations had made her appearance. Behind her, in gold-trimmed armor, her First Prime, Benkei stood. The large, bearded, Jaffa was a looming, but silent, presence.

"Amaterasu. We have been waiting for some time. I had thought, as you agreed to host these talks, that you would be here to greet us from the outset?" Queried Lord Yu, acknowledging Amaterasu's Presence.

"Unfortunately, was held up by affairs of state." Offered Amaterasu.

"I should think you would be. I have heard that your brother Tsukiyomi is up to his old tricks again. Perhaps you are seeking to host a successful mediation in order to quell any discontent about your inactivity?" Jibed Lord Yu.

"Tsukiyomi will be dealt with in time. As I dealt with Susano'o." Frowned Lord Yu.

"I am sure you know best how to deal with your Brother. After all, this is what? The third time he has tried to scheme something?" Retorted Lord Yu.

"Your information-gathering abilities are impressive, Yu. I too have such capabilities. I have heard you had a new Grand Chancellor, Erlang Shen, yes?" Asked Amaterasu, inclining her head toward me.

"I am." I acknowledged.

"I heard you used some. . .let us say interesting tactics to defeat Orunmila. One might say they were somewhat foolhardy." Pressed Amaterasu.

"If it is foolhardy and it works, then it can hardly be considered foolhardy. After all, one of the core fundamentals of strategy is deception, and what is more basic deception than to do what your enemy does not expect?" I shrugged.

"Well said. Though I am curious how you learned of the outcome of the battle?" Questioned Lord Yu.

"I had a spy aboard one of Olokun's ships, the Opon Ifá. It hardly matters now, since your Grand Chancellor destroyed that ship with all hands." Informed Amaterasu.

"For someone whose Cursor'va are supposed to be masters of counter-intelligence, they certainly aren't very good at keeping information from Olokun's rivals. One has to wonder if they are worth the cost of training and equipping them if Olokun's Forces are this poorly infiltrated." I mused.

"Pride is Olokun's fatal flaw. He did nothing to keep the Cursor'va a secret so now everyone plans around his spy-catchers because they know he has them." Smirked Amaterasu.

"Pride is not a flaw he has alone, Amaterasu. Have a care you do not become blinded by the same fatal flaw that currently blinkers Olokun. You might find yourself similarly disadvantaged." Warned Lord Yu.

"Wisdom of the Ages from the Jade Emperor? How could I not listen to the advice of such a. . .venerable personage as yourself?" Sniped Amaterasu.

Before Lord Yu could counter with a veiled insult or threat of his own, however, a flash of light and the sudden appearance of several metal rings heralded the arrival of Olokun via Ring Transport. The African Goa'uld was garbed in an elaborately beaded headdress accented in bronze and a heavily embroidered, flowing, robe. Behind him, a hyena-masked Jaffa, a member of the Magi-Uchawi Jaffa Guard that served Olokun directly stood. His First Prime, Agbawo, who was rumored never to remove his Mask and Armor in Public.

"I am here. Let us get this over with." Spat Olokun, clearly in no mood to trade pleasantries after such a devastating loss.

As we sat down in the middle of the room at a table that was low enough for us all to need to be sitting on cushions on the ground, the servants cleared out, only to be called in when needed. As Amaterasu called the meeting to order, Olokun spoke first.

"I demand you return my High Priest and Chief Underlord to me as a condition of any peace. Where is Orunmila?" Demanded Olokun.

"Safe. We have not touched him since he willingly agreed to surrender." I answered.

"And just how did you manage such a feat? For such a whelp, you have made an awfully brazen splash." Queried Olokun.

"By swearing he would have safe passage by the Fires of Nilor. He is unharmed, you have my word." I responded.

"And what good is the word of an Underlord should his Overlord not agree?" Asked Olokun, turning toward Lord Yu.

"My nephew's word is backed by my own. At any rate, you are hardly in a position to make demands. You arrived at Longinus with a fleet of fourteen Ha'taks and twenty-eight Al'kesh, you left with only eight Ha'taks and Seventeen Al'kesh. Forty percent of your fleet wiped from the stars. In addition, I have captured your most powerful Underlord. If you do not make peace and lick your wounds, your domain will disintegrate around you. I doubt any of us want Cronus to seize even more territory." Reminded Lord Yu.

"And who's fault would it be if he did, Yu?" Snarled Olokun.

"Yours, for starting the war in the first place." I retorted.

Before Olokun could respond to that, however, Amaterasu cut in. Doing her job as hostess and mediator and earning those prestige points she clearly needed to avoid any lingering doubts as to her worthiness to rule.

"What if I were to send a Jaffa up to check on Orunmila? To verify Lord Yu's claims? Would that be acceptable?" Questioned Amaterasu.

"If my word is not good enough, then I suppose that is acceptable. Just one Jaffa, however. Unarmed." Intoned Lord Yu.

"Armed with a Zat'nic'tel and honor blade only." Countered Amaterasu.

"Just the Honor Blade." Haggled Lord Yu.

"The Honor Blade and an In'tar." Returned Amaterasu. Lord Yu thought about it for a few moments before nodding.

"Acceptable." He agreed.

"Is this acceptable to you, Olokun?" Queried Amaterasu.

"I suppose." Begrudged Olokun.

Amaterasu had Benkei send the orders, her burly, bearded, First Prime hastening to obey. Soon enough, a single, minimally armed, Jaffa of Amaterasu's Bushi Guard was on his way up to the Yuzuo via transport rings. As we waited, more refreshments were brought out and I had more of that winter melon juice along with some edamame. An hour and a half later, the Jaffa sent up to the Yuzuo returned with proof of Orunmila's status as unharmed.

Then the negotiations began in earnest. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here we have the first part of the Negotiations with Olokun and a bit more tweaking of tech, along with the First Appearance of Amaterasu and some more worldbuilding. At the same time, Erlang Shen is getting multiple rewards for his good work. Yu's a big believer in positive reinforcement to go along with the negative reinforcement. He uses both carrot and stick, it's part of what separates him from the rest of the System Lords.

As to Amaterasu, it's always weird how most of the Go'auld take the form of religions that stretch back into the Bronze Age or the very early Iron Age, but then you've got outliers like Zipacna, whose Mayan Roots don't begin until the third century AD, well after such a time as the Goa'uld had been kicked off Earth. The most egregious of these are Amaterasu and Svarog, both of whom date to the Sixth Century AD.

At least Zipacna might have had an Olmec Precursor or something that could be used as a justification, but Svarog and Amaterasu? Those were just thrown in for rule of cool on the writer's part. The earliest known records we have of ancient Japan are the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, both of which are the oldest extant mentions of Amaterasu and both of which date to the sixth century. Meanwhile, the Early Slavs don't even show up until that same period.

Accordingly, in order to fix those inconsistencies in the timeline, I have it that the Goa'uld still occasionally did slave raids on Earth as late as the seventh century AD before a combination of Anubis and Ra's War with the Asgard destroyed enough knowledge and killed enough Goa'uld to erase that knowledge from existence. That's why there's still a decent number of Chinese Elements to Society in Amaterasu's Domain because at the time the location of Earth was lost entirely to the Goa'uld, the Yamato Kingdom hadn't broken away from Chinese Influence fully yet.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the next part of the negotiations.

Stay tuned. . .